Modern Developments in African Land Tenure: an Aspect of Culture Change

African land tenure is a subject so vast that in dealing with it one hesitates to commit oneself to statements of general application lest particular instances should be found to controvert them. Yet, when it is considered from the point of view of culture change, it is possible to discern a number of general trends, the nature of which is similar because their cause is the same–the impact on African society of the commercial economy of Western Europe with its infinite range of forms of wealth and possibilities of acquiring them. Though other forces too are active in the modern process of culture change, this is the most pervasive, and its influence can be traced in the development of every institution. In the case of land rights, closely bound up as they are with systems of production, the influence is direct and obvious.